SACRAMENTO —California voters are sharply divided over the future of cash bail in a new statewide poll, although a slight plurality supports a new law to replace the system with one that would allow more defendants to be released prior to trial.
The poll, conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies for the Los Angeles Times, finds that 39% of likely voters would keep the new law in place. Thirty-two percent would cancel the law and reinstate the cash bail system, while 29% of voters are undecided.
The contested law, Senate Bill 10, was signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown last year. In January, a campaign funded by the bail bond industry successfully gathered enough voter signatures to place a referendum measure on the November 2020 statewide ballot in hopes of overturning the law.
Read more from John Myers at the LA Times